Meet the author

Sophie Anderson.

Writer · United Kingdom

Sophie Anderson: the folklore-fantasy storyteller behind The House with Chicken Legs, whose Slavic-inflected tales handle grief, belonging and home with warmth and wonder — a modern middle-grade favourite for 8–12s who love myth and magic.

Sophie Anderson is a British author born and raised in Swansea, now living in the Lake District. A former geologist and science teacher, she writes lyrical middle-grade fantasy steeped in Slavic and Eastern European folklore — the Baba Yaga tales her Prussian grandmother once told her. Her acclaimed debut, The House with Chicken Legs, follows Marinka, granddaughter of a Yaga who guides the dead to the stars, and set the tone for everything that followed: The Girl Who Speaks Bear, The Castle of Tangled Magic, The Thief Who Sang Storms and the gentle winter tale The Snow Girl. Her work handles grief, belonging and identity with warmth rather than dread, and has been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal three times. A reliable choice for readers aged 8–12 who love myth-rich, folklore-woven worlds and heroines finding their place.